


Toothless' Guide to Adopting Children

by Flux_Uchiha



Series: Of Changewings and Time Things [1]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Chief Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Cute Midoriya Izuku, Dragonese (How to Train Your Dragon), F/M, Found Family, Gen, Hiccup Needs A Hug, Hiccup is trying his best, Language Barrier, Parental Hiccup, Protective Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Protective Toothless (How to Train Your Dragon), Sheep, Young Midoriya Izuku, he not ready for parenthood
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:27:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25855882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flux_Uchiha/pseuds/Flux_Uchiha
Summary: When a five year old Izuku got separated from his mother and hit by a quirk, he wasn't expecting to wake up in a forest with a strange man speaking to him in another language.When Hiccup went for an afternoon flight around Berk, he wasn't expecting Toothless to suddenly spot a small, unfamiliar child on the ground.OrA young Izuku ends up far from home, and Hiccup didn't sign up for parenthood.
Relationships: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Midoriya Izuku, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Toothless, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Astrid Hofferson, Midoriya Izuku & Astrid Hofferson, Toothless & Midoriya Izuku
Series: Of Changewings and Time Things [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1970818
Comments: 149
Kudos: 284





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I was happily conned into writing this by my discord server. So congratulations!

While it had been a peaceful flight for most of the time, Hiccup was plenty experienced enough to know that it likely wouldn’t stay that way, and as such, remained alert. Toothless was looking around as well, keeping an eye on the air around them. There weren’t many islands in sight, but boats happen to be a thing. While he did keep a closer eye on the sea, he did keep an eye on the sky as well. He had to know if they needed to go into some fancy flying to avoid something. Or catch something, as the circumstance appeared to be here. 

Something, Hiccup couldn’t quite see what it was, was falling out of the sky. “Come on bud, let’s get a bit closer.” 

Hiccup moved the tailfin into a better position, and Toothless shot forward, wings closing slightly to give them just a bit more speed. 

Now that they were closer, Hiccup could tell it was a child, in strange clothes, and perhaps five years old. Toothless went into a dive, pulling alongside the child so Hiccup could grab the kid. 

He looked unconscious, although mostly uninjured. Hiccup could spot fresh burns along the kid’s arms, along with healing ones, and a multitude of bruises. 

“Let’s get back to Berk bud,” Hiccup said, patting his old friend. “We can get out and finish patrol after dropping the kid off.” 

Toothless chuffed, wheeling around in a wide arc so as not to jolt the kid too much. 

The trip to Berk wouldn’t be too long, but Hiccup did what little first aid he could while in the air. Mostly wrapping up the burns he could see. The kid was skinny, with a chubby face and green hair. Hiccup was almost reminded of himself at that age. A twig of a kid. Well, wherever the kid had come from, it looked like it wasn’t too great of a place, and that Hiccup would be keeping him now. He’d ask Astrid, of course, it would be very bad manners of him to not. Also he doubted he could hide a child from her. 

He doubted she’d say no, however, the kid was adorable. 

They reached Berk soon enough, Toothless going straight to the Chief’s house where Hiccup resided. 

Hiccup set the kid on a seat, the kid curling up instinctively. Hiccup dropped a blanket over him, then went to look for the burn salve they had in the house. He knew they had some somewhere, they had to, they had two dragons living with them. Accidents were bound to happen. 

He got back, and started treating the kid’s wounds better. 

The kid woke up halfway though, and skittered away, curling up against the back of the chair and staring at him with big fearful eyes. 

Hiccup held up his hands. “I’m not going to hurt you kid.” He offered the burn salve, the kid glancing at it, then back up to him with a curious expression. “I’m just treating your wounds.” He gestured to the burns littering the kid’s arms. 

The kid seemed to understand somewhat, and carefully scooted closer, offering the arm Hiccup had been working on to him.

Hiccup smiled reassuringly, taking the arm gently and smearing more burn salve onto the wounds then carefully wrapping them in bandages. 

The kid asked him something in another language, and Hiccup looked at him quizzically as he set the burn salve down. “I’m afraid I don’t understand you, what did you say?” 

The kid blinked at him in utter confusion, and it became very clear to Hiccup that there was a language barrier here. 

From there began the attempt at charades. 

The kid pointed at Hiccup, then at himself, and said  _ “Izuku.” _

“Is that your name?” Hiccup asked, making like he was writing something down on paper. “What you’re called?” 

Izuku nodded, then pointed at him again. 

“Oh! My name is Hiccup.” Hiccup pointed at himself and repeated it. “Hiccup.” 

“Hiccup,” Izuku repeated, smiling widely. He said something else, miming drinking water. 

Hiccup got up, Izuku following after him curiously, and found a water bucket. He touched the water. “Water.” 

Izuku said something in his language, touching the water as well. 

Hiccup attempted to copy the word.  _ “Water?”  _

_ “Water!” _ The kid confirmed. Then in Norse, “water!” Izuku knelt down and scooped up some of the water, holding it close to his mouth and looking at Hiccup in question. 

Hiccup nodded. The kid could drink from here. He did as well; Astrid had been pestering him lately to drink more water. Something about dehydration. 

The door to the house opened, and heavy footsteps signaled Stormfly’s entry, and with the Nadder, came Astrid. 

“Hiccup? Are you in here? People said they saw you coming back early.” 

Izuku started looking around frantically, presumably for somewhere to hide, Hiccup gently scooped him up instead, bringing him out to meet Hiccup’s girlfriend and her dragon. Oh, he needed to introduce the kid to Toothless still, didn’t he. 

“Izuku,” Hiccup said as they entered where Astrid was waiting. He pointed to Astrid. “Astrid.” 

Izuku pointed at her too. “Astrid?” 

“Astrid,” Hiccup confirmed. 

“Hiccup, who is this?” Astrid asked, deadly poison lacing her tone. 

“Uhh, Astrid, meet Izuku! He, uh, kinda fell out of the sky?” 

Astrid eyed him suspiciously, but apparently decided not to make a scene, and turned her attention to Izuku instead. “Hello little buddy, how are you doing today?” 

Izuku blinked at her in confusion, but slightly lessened the death grip on Hiccup’s clothing. 

“He, uh, can’t understand us. I don’t know where he came from, but it isn’t anywhere near here.” Hiccup shrugged. “There’s a language barrier, and I’m trying to work on breaking it.” 

“Alright,” Astrid said, ruffling Izuku’s green hair. “He’s pretty cute, I’ll admit that.” 

Hiccup decided, for his own safety, to not be smug that he had predicted that Izuku’s cuteness would go a long way. “I’m going to take him out around the village and try and get through the language barrier more.” 

“Well, alright, just be back in time to make dinner, and we can switch off.” Astrid kissed him quickly, then disappeared upstairs, presumably to fetch her axes. 

Hiccup set Izuku down, offering his hand and pointing to the door. “Out.” 

Izuku blinked at him. “Out,” he agreed, taking Hiccup’s hand. 

Hiccup paused when they were almost out the door. “Wait,” he turned and pointed to Toothless. “Dragon.” 

“Dragon?” Izuku asked, tilting his head. 

“Dragon.” Hiccup confirmed. He pointed to himself. “Name, Hiccup.” 

Izuku pointed at himself too. “Name, Izuku.” 

Hiccup smiled, then pointed at Toothless. “Name, Toothless.” 

He was rewarded with a big smile. “Toothless!” Izuku pointed at Toothless, who returned with a gummy smile. 

Toothless got up from his stone slab in the living room to come over and warble at Izuku, who cheerfully imitated Toothless almost perfectly. Toothless nosed Izuku, who happily hugged his head. 

Hiccup grinned. “Did you want to carry the kid, Toothless?” 

Toothless nodded, nosing the kid gently again. 

Hiccup looked at Izuku. “Toothless wants to carry you, is that alright?” Hiccup pantomimed picking Izuku up and setting him on Toothless’ back. 

Izuku nodded excitedly, holding his arms up as if to make Hiccup pick him up. 

So, Hiccup picked Izuku up, and put him in Toothless’ saddle. Izuku wriggled a bit, settling himself in, short legs not even reaching the stirrups Hiccup used. 

Toothless made a rumbly purr noise, and Izuku giggled in delight. Hiccup laughed as well, opening the door. “Well, it looks like you two are getting along just fine.” 

Izuku seemed quite delighted with the village, chanting “dragon” every few seconds, and pointing delightedly at everything in sight. 

Hiccup ended up leading Toothless down to the sheep paddocks, which had fewer dragons. He pointed to one of the sheep. “Sheep.” 

“Sheep!” Izuku copied happily. 

“Grass,” Hiccup added, pointing at the grass. “Sheep eat the grass.” 

“Sheep eat the grass?” Izuku asked, tilting his head. Then he pointed at a sheep that was chewing. “Sheep eat the grass.” 

“Yep,” Hiccup said, nodding. He assumed Izuku was affirming that the sheep was, in fact, eating the grass. Or that was what eat meant. 

“Dragon eat sheep?” Izuku asked innocently. 

Toothless chuffed, and Hiccup snickered. “No, they eat fish.” 

“Fish?” Izuku asked, blinking innocently. “Eat fish?” 

Hiccup started walking towards the docks where the fishermen should be getting back. “We’ll see fish here.” 

“See fish!” Izuku chirped, then he warbled, sounding almost exactly like Toothless. Toothless warbled back. 

The docks weren’t too far away, and sure enough, the fishermen were coming back with their nets full of fish. 

“Fish,” Hiccup told Izuku, pointing at the fish in the nets. “In nets.” 

“Fish in nets!” Izuku copied dutifully. 

Toothless warbled than trilled, and Izuku copied him too. 

Hiccup eyed the clearly curious fishermen, and wondered if he really wanted to deal with this today. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!

Well, with the fishermen approaching, it looked like he had to anyway. Oh well, they had to introduce Izuku to the village at some point, might as well be now. 

“Hiccup!” The fisherman said cheerily. “Who might the little guy be?” 

“His name is Izuku,” Hiccup replied carefully, patting Toothless’ head. “He’s not from around here.” 

“Izuku!” Izuku chirped cheerfully, having heard his name. “Dragon!” 

“Thinks he’s a dragon does he?” A second fisherman asked, laughing loudly. 

“Dragon!” Izuku repeated cheerfully. His stomach grumbled, and Hiccup checked the sun. It was getting near to sunset, so close to dinner time. Good. 

“If you don’t mind, we’ll be on our way,” Hiccup said, smiling. “Astrid will be expecting me for dinner.” 

“Have a good day chief!” The first said, nodding firmly. 

“Good hunting,” Hiccup returned, Toothless giving a warble as well. “Izuku?” 

Izuku looked at him. “Izuku!” he replied happily. 

Hiccup realized this was going to go nowhere, and just swung up behind Izuku, slipping his feet into the stirrups and nudging Izuku forward so he could sit in the saddle as well. “Let’s go back to the house, bud.” 

Toothless warbled, and took off, Izuku screaming in what was maybe fear as Toothless took off. Hiccup wrapped his arms around Izuku quickly to make sure he didn’t fall off or anything, and the screaming quieted into sniffles, that quickly stopped as Izuku looked over the side of Toothless and didn’t seem all that phased. Hiccup wondered if that was normal. To be fair, he knew very little about kids. 

They landed in front of the house, and Toothless nudged the door open before walking in. 

“Hiccup,” Valka said, smiling at her son. “Who might this be? Don’t tell me you’ve been hiding a grandson from me.” 

“Hey Mom,” Hiccup replied, setting Izuku on the ground before hopping off himself. “No! No, I haven’t! I just picked him up this morning. He fell out of the sky during patrol, we barely caught him.” 

Toothless warbled in agreement, wandering over to where Cloudjumper was sitting. 

“Is he injured?” Valka asked, crouching down in front of the kid to look him in the eye. Izuku hid behind Hiccup. 

Hiccup patted his head reassuringly. “Yeah, he’s got some burns on his arms.” 

Valka stood, raising an eyebrow. “From a dragon?” 

Hiccup shook his head. The burns hadn’t been like that. They had been smaller, and suspiciously hand shaped, but he had no clue what could have caused them. “Not the right shape or kind. It looks like it came from another human, but I have no clue how that would work.” 

Valka looked understandably confused. About as confused as Hiccup felt about the whole thing. “I don’t know either. We’ll have to ask him about it later.” 

Izuku’s stomach rumbled, and Hiccup glanced down. Izuku blinked up at him. 

“Hungry?” Hiccup asked. 

Izuku tilted his head, then pointed at his mouth, miming chewing. 

“Yeah he’s hungry,” Hiccup said, nodding. “Is dinner almost ready?” He glanced around the room, looking for Astrid.

“It is now,” Astrid said cheerily, kicking open one of the doors. “How’s the kid?”

“Hungry,” Hiccup sighed. “What’s for dinner?” 

“Mutton and some bread Valka helped me make!” Astrid replied, crouching to ruffle the kid’s hair. “Hungry?” 

Izuku mimed eating again, nodding. 

Astrid grinned, grabbing his hand and dragging him to the table. “Come on, we got dinner ready.” 

Izuku was seated on Hiccup’s left, Valka in the seat next to him. Astrid, of course, sat on Hiccup’s right. He pointed at the food in utter confusion. 

Hiccup pointed at the meat. “Sheep.” 

Izuku frowned. “Sheep?” He poked the meat dubiously. 

“Good to eat,” Hiccup said, picking up a piece and tearing into it. He chewed and swallowed in full view of Izuku. 

Izuku tilted his head, picking up a piece of mutton as well. Hiccup bit into his piece again, and was rewarded by Izuku doing the same. He chewed and swallowed again, and Izuku copied him, although chewing for a bit longer than Hiccup. 

Izuku seemed to think about it for a while, then smiled, biting into it again. 

“I think he likes it,” Hiccup decided, tearing into his piece again. 

Astrid looked proud, in between bites of mutton. Valka just chuckled, eating as well. “I think he does too.” Astrid replied proudly. 

Izuku finished his meat, glancing curiously at the bread. 

“Bread,” Hiccup explained, pointing at it. “Good to eat.” 

Izuku nodded, picking it up. “Good to eat.” He parroted. He bit into it, chewing and swallowing. “Good to eat.” He repeated, nodding again. 

“I think he likes that too,” Valka said, amused. 

“It is very good to eat,” Hiccup agreed. 

“Good to eat!” Izuku chirped, biting into the bread again. He eyed the meat, then reached over and tore off a strip with his fingers, tearing some bread in half, then putting the meat between the bread slices and biting into it. 

Hiccup watched, amused, as Izuku finished that off, then did it again, grinning widely as he did so. “Good to eat!” Izuku chirped at him. 

Hiccup took that to mean he should try it, and copied Izuku, tearing some bread in half and placing meat between the pieces. He didn’t get it, but he might as well try. 

“What are you doing,” Astrid asked, shamelessly laughing at him. 

Hiccup shrugged, biting into the bread and meat. It was actually rather good, so he continued eating it. “It’s good, so I guess I’m doing whatever he is.” 

Astrid stared at him suspiciously, then grabbed some bread and meat for herself. 

Valka just laughed shamelessly at both of them, and Izuku happily ate more bread and meat. 

Soon enough, Izuku started getting tired, swaying slightly in the seat, and blinking slowly. He was done eating, had been for a little bit, he was a small child after all. He ended up leaning against Valka, blinking sleepily at the table. 

“We need to put him somewhere,” Astrid said, finishing up another of the stacked bread and meat things. 

“Do we have an open room?” Hiccup wondered, tilting his head at the kid. 

“Your old nursery should fit him fine,” Valka answered for them. “Astrid, if you could dust off the bed?” 

Astrid nodded, disappearing for a few minutes. She came back, holding a set of clothes. “I think these should be his size? I think they’re Hiccup’s old stuff.” 

“Hiccup was likely just as scrawny at this age,” Valka hummed, taking the clothes. “They should fit fine.” 

Hiccup got up. “I’ll get him dressed and redress the burns quickly.” 

“We should take him to see Gothi tomorrow,” Valka instructed. “We’ll need to make sure he’s healthy. He’s small, and seems healthy, but we shouldn’t take chances.” 

Hiccup nodded, picking up Izuku and grabbing the clothes from his mother. Izuku held onto Hiccup’s clothes sleepily, resting his head on Hiccup’s shoulder. 

“Hey, Izuku,” Hiccup said, shaking the kid gently as he set him down. “Can you change into these?” He offered the clothes. 

Izuku nodded sleepily, taking the offered clothes. Hiccup turned around obligingly. Izuku tugged on his shirt, so he turned around again. Izuku had gotten on the pants, although seemed a bit confused about the tunic. 

Hiccup withheld a gasp at the mild burns and bruises covering the kid’s torso. He quickly stood up and fetched bandages and the burn cream. He held them up for Izuku’s inspection, although the kid seemed too out of it to care. 

He carefully smeared the burn cream on the bruises, wrapping up the kid’s torso, then unwrapping the arms to reapply the burn cream again, and rewrapping them. By the end, Izuku had fully dozed off, so Hiccup put the tunic on him, then picked him up carefully. 

Astrid cooed at the sleeping kid, then returned to cleaning up dinner. “By the way, I think Toothless is going to insist on sleeping in the kid’s room. He’s sitting by the door.” 

“Thanks for the warning I guess,” Hiccup said, quiet so as to not wake the kid. He went up the stairs, and sure enough, Toothless was waiting patiently by the door. Hiccup shrugged, and decided to just leave the door open. Toothless could sleep where he liked, and he knew not to burn circles for himself unless it was on his stone tablet. 

Hiccup laid Izuku down in the bed he hadn’t slept in for several years, pulling the blanket over the kid. Toothless padded in, curling around the end of the bed, staring at Hiccup as if daring him to say no. 

Hiccup just shrugged at his dragon, and left. He left the door open however. Just in case. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sleepy dragonet. A talk next time, then we get some of Izuku’s perspective! See you then!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ‘The adults talk’ was pretty much most of my notes for this chapter. TW for talking about killing I guess? Astrid made a jump in logic and came to the conclusion someone’s trying to kill Izuku. Don’t ask me how. 

Hiccup went downstairs to find Valka and Astrid waiting for him. “Toothless is staying with the kid,” he explained at their curious glances behind him. 

“Where did you find him anyway?” Valka asked, settling in a chair. Hiccup sat in one opposite of her, Astrid next to him. 

“Well he fell out of the sky,” Hiccup said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Toothless and I were on patrol, as usual, and we spotted the kid falling. We caught him and brought him back here.” 

“In the middle of the ocean?” Valka asked, frowning. 

“There weren’t any islands in sight,” Hiccup confirmed. “We didn’t hear any dragons nearby either, although I didn’t think to check because Izuku was injured.”

“With weird handprint shaped burns,” Astrid added. 

“I suppose what I’m asking is if there are people who will miss him,” Valka said, getting straight to the point. 

“There might be?” Hiccup guessed. “With the current language barrier, we just can’t know. There wasn’t any land near where we found him, and who would drop a five-year-old out of the sky from dragon back?” 

“Someone who wants him dead?” Astrid suggested. 

“Could explain the burns,” Valka agreed. 

Hiccup frowned. It had been pretty cloudy when they’d been patrolling, so it was entirely possible. “But why dropping him out of the sky? Wouldn’t, I don’t know, removing his head be easier? Or feeding him to a dragon, as insensitive as it sounds.” 

“You have a point,” Astrid said, starting to sharpen one of her axes. “Not that then, but where could he have come from?” 

“I don’t know,” Hiccup said, sighing. “There’s nowhere, and no reason for him to have been dropped, if he fell his dragon would have probably caught him, or at least tried to. And there weren’t any dragons around.” 

“The language barrier has to narrow it down somewhat,” Valka suggested, glancing at Cloudjumper, who made a movement with his wings that looked suspiciously like a shrug. 

“I’ve never heard a language like that,” Astrid shot it down quickly, shaking her head. “Not even close.” 

“Me either,” Hiccup agreed. “No offense, but I am more traveled than you Astrid, but again, nothing.” 

“None taken,” she replied easily, her sharpening stone scraping along the edge of her battleaxe. “We can’t exactly ask him about it though.” 

“No, we can’t,” Hiccup sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He could feel the headache building up behind his eyes. He had a feeling this would be more troublesome than anything he’d dealt with before. 

“Well, I guess you two have a kid now then,” Valka said, clearly teasing, but her words rang true with Hiccup

“Oh gosh, we have a kid now,” Hiccup realized, turning to Astrid.

She looked amused. “Did you only now realize?” 

“Astrid, we have a kid now.” 

“Yes, you idiot, we do,” Astrid whacked his shoulder. “Stop stating the obvious.” 

“Astrid,” Hiccup said again, pleading in his tone. “I’m not ready to be a dad.” 

Astrid snorted. 

“Don’t laugh at me!” Hiccup protested. She was laughing at him! He was mid crisis thank you very much! He shouldn’t be being laughed at! 

Valka reached across and patted his shoulder. “Your father did the exact same thing when I told him I was pregnant. You’ll be a fine father. And this time, your wife won’t be taken away by dragons when the kid’s a baby.” 

That wasn’t entirely reassuring, but better than nothing. “Thanks mom,” Hiccup settled for. 

“Look on the bright side,” she continued, chuckling. “You don’t have to deal with potty training.” 

“Thank Odin for that,” Astrid agreed, sighing. 

**{(A/N) A brief interlude here to inform you that here, italics is anything in Norse, Bold is Dragonese when in Izuku’s pov. Toothless and dragon are in italics even in his thoughts because Izuku doesn’t know the Japanese equivalents.}**

Izuku woke up confused, but warm. He snuggled deeper into the scritchy blankets, trying to preserve the lingering sleepiness. If he didn’t have to get up, he didn’t want to. He didn’t feel like another day of Kacchan calling him Deku and pushing him around. He’d get up when his mom called him to get up. 

When his mom didn’t come to wake him up after a long while, Izuku realized he was either up way earlier than he thought, or something was wrong. 

He opened his eyes properly to find a weird creature staring at him. A ‘ _ dragon _ ’, whatever that meant.  _ Toothless _ he remembered it being called. Did  _ dragons _ have a gender? 

_ Toothless _ made a vague grinning expression, trilling softly at him. 

Izuku assumed it was a variation of good morning or something, and copied the  _ dragon _ . He didn’t understand much, but he thought he’d learned some words in whatever language everyone was talking in. And the  _ dragon _ seemed to have a language of their own, he’d seen  _ Toothless _ talking? Was it still called that? To other dragons. So he had to learn two languages. 

It hit him, he hadn’t realized it yesterday, too caught up in the exhilaration of a new place and new people, but he didn’t know if he could go home. 

One moment he’d been in the alleyway, having been cornered by Kacchan. Kacchan had done the usual, then walked away, but not before kicking Izuku and sending him staggering back. He’d hit his head on something and passed out, then woke up in the new place with the nice man,  _ Hiccup _ cleaning the burns caused by Kacchan. 

He still didn’t get why he hadn’t been asked about that, although maybe it was the language barrier. He may be only five, but he was smart, he could at least try and interpret the awkward charades game they were playing. 

The  _ dragon _ crooned softly, moving around the side of the bed to nudge into his side. 

Izuku copied the noise. He’d learned from a book his momma had left lying around that babies learned language by copying people. So he’d have to do the same, and copy people for everything. He’d also seen in the book that the ideal learning age was like 2-5, and he was still in that range, albeit on the end area. He’d do it, he’d learn and he’d find out where his home was. He had to get back to momma, she’d worry. 

“Izuku?” Izuku recognized his name and looked up to find  _ Hiccup _ in the door frame. He smiled and waved. 

Hiccup said a word Izuku didn’t recognize, but assumed meant something like breakfast. Hopefully anyway, because Izuku was hungry. The sandwiches he’d constructed last night had been yummy, and Izuku wondered if they’d have cooked fish this morning. Like a normal breakfast. 

There was indeed cooked fish on the table, but Izuku didn’t see any rice, just a thick soupy thingy. He eyed it cautiously before using the spoon to try it. 

It was kinda bland, but it was okay. He wondered what it was called. 

“ _ Hiccup _ ,” Izuku tried. 

_ Hiccup _ looked up in shock, but let his full attention rest on Izuku. 

Izuku oddly didn’t feel too much problem with this, and pointed at the fish, hoping to All Might that he remembered the word for it correctly. “ _ Fish _ ,” then he warbled to copy  _ Toothless.  _ “ **Fish!** ” 

_ Toothless _ raised his head from where he was gnawing on a raw fish. He warbled back.  **“Fish.”**

Izuku beamed. Then remembered that he was trying to ask what the thick soupy stuff was. He pointed at the fish again. “ _ Fish. _ ” Then he pointed at the thick soupy stuff and tilted his head. 

_ Hiccup _ blinked at him for a moment, probably confused. Understanding seemed to dawn and he pointed at his own bowl.  _ “Porridge.” _

Izuku pointed at the contents of his bowl. “ _ Porridge? _ ” 

_ Hiccup _ nodded confirmation. 

Izuku stared at the  _ porridge _ . A strange name, he thought. But then again, everything was strange here. He hadn’t even seen any quirks yet, unless one counted the  _ dragons _ . The weird creatures that seemed to be everywhere. He wasn’t yet, since there were so many of them. 

Maybe here he wouldn’t be treated like less for his quirklessness? No, he shouldn’t think that, he needed to get back to his momma, even if it meant facing Kacchan again. He had to get back to his momma. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, originally this was going to be three chapters. First the adults didn’t want to talk, then Izuku didn’t have any water works which I’m still confused about, and finally I decided that I don’t want to do the italization again, and as such will be moving on next chapter to a time a few weeks after Izuku arrives. He’ll be somewhat fluent in Norse and Dragonese by that time, the perks of living with consistent exposure to it. From here on out, I will be switching between Hiccup, Izuku, and the occasional Toothless, to ensure you have the whole story. Hiccup and Toothless will be phased out near the end however for reasons I don’t care to explain. Bye!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! A recap of what I said last time: This is a few weeks after the first chapters. Hence the leap in Izuku’s conversational skills. Next month is November, and I won’t be updating during then, so, yep. 

Izuku straightened a leaf on the flower, bored out of his tiny mind. He was learning  _ Norse _ , the language here, and how the dragons spoke, but no one was around to chat with him. Gothi was busy right now and couldn’t show him more medical stuff, and that had been happening more and more often. He was bored, and had nothing to do! 

He’d already organized the stuff in the cupboards by color, then in alphabetical order, then reverse alphabetical order, then back into the order Gothi liked them in, which wasn’t really an order at all, but everything had its place. He’d also cleaned the entire place top to bottom, which wasn’t all that impressive as the place was pretty small, and finish the basket one of the nice ladies in the village was teaching him how to make. Which was only slightly more impressive. 

So now he was bored. And had nothing else to do. Gothi was babysitting him while Hiccup and Astrid were doing their work, which was a lot of hearing complaints, checking up on the village, and patrols. He’d gone on a couple safe patrols, and a couple walks around the village, they were alright, although sometimes kinda boring. There were lotsa dragons though! 

He was starting to get over the fact he wouldn’t ever go home now, wouldn’t see his mom or Kacchan again. He was less tripped up over the second one, and the people here were nice, they didn’t seem to have any quirks at all, so Izuku fit right in. He liked not being different from others aside from his green hair and small size. He could dye his hair, or rub charcoal in it, and he’d grow up, so both were things he’d only worry about for so long. 

But he was still bored, with nothing to do, and he was supposed to stay in here, not wander off. 

He looked out the window. Hiccup had been teaching him how to tell time by the sun, and from what he knew, he was pretty sure it was almost time for him to go home. Finally. But he had to wait for Hiccup or Toothless to pick him up. 

So he waited and waited, reorganizing the ingredients a couple more times. 

Finally Hiccup and Toothless came to pick him up. 

“Where were you, I was bored!” Izuku huffed, pouting. 

Toothless trilled a greeting at him. 

“Yeah yeah, nice to see you too.” Izuku replied, patting the dragon’s nose. 

Hiccup ruffled his hair. “Did Gothi not keep you busy this time?” 

Izuku shook his head. “I was just stuck in here doing nothing the whole time. It was super boring! I reorganized that cupboard like five times!” He draped himself over Toothless’s head dramatically. 

“That is a lot,” Hiccup agreed, laughing. “Astrid has been pestering me to ask you about something, so we’ll do that tonight.”

“What is it! What is it!” Izuku asked, wriggling in excitement. “Up?”

“You’ll see,” Hiccup replied, picking Izuku up and putting him in Toothless’ saddle. “Tonight. For now, do you want to help me check on the fishermen?” 

Izuku nodded excitedly. He liked going to help the fishermen! It was always fun! Sometimes he got to help pull in the fish, or tie the boats to the dock, or pull in the sails, or climb the mast to look for cracks! He really liked climbing the mast. 

“Hello chief!” One of the fishermen bellowed. 

Hiccup raised a hand. “Hello to you as well. Need any help?” 

“Not at the moment,” he replied easily. “But-” he said a word Izuku didn’t know- “could use some, he got caught in a-” another word Izuku didn’t know- “and got in kind of late.”

“Noted, thank you,” Hiccup said, nodding. 

“What’d he say?” Izuku asked, tugging on Hiccup’s sleeve. 

“What part?” Hiccup replied, leading them over to the ship in question. 

**“He got caught in an offshore current,”** Toothless explained.  **“Their ships are just low enough to get caught in the currents and end up thrown off course. They don’t have a right name for it.”**

Izuku trilled his thanks, humming cheerfully under his breath. 

“Chief!” Another person from the ship they were headed for waved. “Oh! Did you bring the kid? I need ‘im to check the mast, the winds where we got carried off to were pretty strong.” 

Izuku wiggled happily. He got to climb the mast! 

Hiccup laughed, picking Izuku up and setting him back on the ground. “Alright, go ahead and climb the mast.”

Izuku beamed, scrambling up the mast, carefully checking one side going up, and the other going down. He stopped in front of the fisherman once he was done. “There aren’t any cracks!” 

A heavy hand ruffled his hair, and he grinned wider. “Good job squirt. Looks like I can take her out again tomorrow.” 

“Just avoid the…” Izuku chirp/whistled what Toothless had called it. “It seems kinda dangerous!” 

Izuku got weird looks from the two other humans, but they were brief so Izuku ignored them. 

Toothless warbled approvingly at him. 

“Come on Izuku, let’s go check with the other fishermen to see if they need any help, alright?”

Izuku nodded, turning his beaming grin on Hiccup. “Yep! Let’s go!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s November next month, so there won’t be any updating! Congrats, you get to wait a month and a half to know what’s gonna happen.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hii! Miss me? I’m back from Nanowrimo! Regular updates will continue from here out. 

Izuku still didn’t know what the meeting was about, but he really hoped it would cure his boredom problem. So here he sat, waiting for Hiccup to finish speaking to someone so they could go home and speak to Astrid. 

**“He’s almost done,”** Toothless rumbled, one earflap twitching.  **“Just give my rider a moment more.”**

Izuku hummed in response, swinging his legs from on top of the box he was sitting on. Boxes were nice to sit on. Dragons were more so, but boxes were good too. Anything to get him a bit more height. He was so short compared to everyone. 

He knew he was just a kid and therefore couldn’t conceivably be taller than any of the adults, but still. 

True to Toothless’ word, Hiccup was done in a couple minutes, coming over to see them. “Sorry that took so long,” he said as soon as he was in earshot. 

Izuku shrugged, dropping down from his crate straight onto Toothless’ back. “It’s fine! Let’s go see Astrid!” 

Hiccup laughed. “Alright, alright, we’ll go see Astrid. Scoot up a bit and we can ride Toothless.” 

Izuku cheered, scooting up to right behind Toothless’ head. Hiccup slid into the saddle behind him, and Izuku wiggled back a bit, just enough to be secure when they took off. 

Hiccup wrapped one protective arm around him, and Izuku leaned into it as they took off. 

It was a fairly leisurely flight to the chief’s house, people waving at them from below, and Izuku trying to wave back at everyone from Toothless’ back. 

People liked him here, and he was starting to come to terms with that fact. People liked him despite his quirklessness. They didn’t have any quirks either, so he fit in just fine. They liked him, the strange foreign boy who was learning their language. They didn’t mind Izuku’s mumbling rants in his original language, they even thought it was cute, and told him he was smart. 

The first time that had happened he burst into tears, scaring the person who’d told him that. He’d reassured them it was happy tears, which for some reason made them even more concerned. He was still trying to figure out why that concerned them. 

They landed without incident, and Hiccup slid off Toothless’ back, picking Izuku up and setting him on the ground too. 

“Let’s go see what Astrid wants, hm?” Hiccup suggested, opening the door. 

Izuku cheered, bouncing through the open door. He could see Astrid waiting by the fire, cooking something that was probably going to end up as dinner. “Hii Astrid!” He chirped, skipping over to her. “Food?” 

“At dinner,” she replied immediately. “Took you two long enough to get home.” 

“I got to climb a mast!” He informed her brightly. “There weren’t any cracks on it!” 

She smiled at him, ruffling his hair. “That’s good Izuku, masts with cracks in them are bad.” 

Izuku nodded quickly. “They’re dangerous!” Wait, that wasn’t right. Was it? Izuku chirp/barked it in Toothless’ language, then in his original, then in Norse. Nope, that was right. “Yeah! Dangerous!” 

Hiccup ruffled his hair too, and Izuku leaned into the touch. “Good job dragonet. That was a big word. But yes. Cracks in the mast are very dangerous.”

Izuku blinked up at Astrid. “What did you wanna talk about?” 

“Well, I hear you’ve been bored,” she said, laughing slightly. “And I think your Norse is good enough to put you in the village school.” 

Hiccup blinked at Astrid. “School?” 

“Well, he’s just been with Gothi all day, letting him go to school and interact with kids his age would be good for him,” Astrid explained. “And with any luck, it’ll fix his boredom.” 

Izuku considered it. On one hand, he probably wouldn’t be bored. On the other, he didn’t know many of the kids in the village, had only seen them in passing with their parents. He didn’t want to have a repeat of his old home’s school. He didn’t want to be bullied for being useless and different again. 

Well, Izuku was nothing if not an optimist, so he decided he could at least try. 

“He could help me in the forge, it’s what my dad did when I got bored at school. Sent me off to Gobber to attempt to get be to build some muscle and not be quite so bored,” Hiccup tried. 

“You can do that on top of school,” Astrid countered. “And it’s up to Izuku.” She crouched down in front of him. “So? We’ll have to show you how to write, but a good section of the children are still learning at your age, so you should be fine with a couple days of catch up. And a new school year starts soon.” 

Izuku nodded hesitantly. He’d at least try. He had to, if just to keep his sanity and keep from getting too bored. But working in the forge too sounded fun! “I-I can do both!” 

Astrid ruffled his hair. “We can start working on your writing after dinner, how’s that. I’ll enroll you tomorrow.” 

Izuku turned to Hiccup and pulled out all of his pleading face’s ability. “Can you take me to school tomorrow?” 

Hiccup scrunched up his face as if in decision, and Izuku knew he’d won. “Fine. I’ll take you to school.”

Astrid laughed, kissing him. Izuku made exaggerated gagging noises, looking away. Eww, they were kissing again! 

Hiccup laughed at him, ruffling Izuku’s hair. “I’ll show you the forge while dinner finishes up, how’s that.” 

“You have five minutes,” Astrid threatened. “Any longer and Valka and I are eating without you.” 

Izuku put his hand on his chest, the perfect picture of aghast. “You wouldn’t!” 

“I would.” She countered, smirking. 

“Come on Izuku, if we want to see the forge, we can’t stand around arguing with Astrid. She’d just win anyway.”

“Dang right,” she replied, patting Izuku’s hair. “Go with Hiccup. His forge is pretty cool, even if I don’t know a quarter of what on earth he does in there. I was never the forging type.” 

Izuku nodded quickly, following Hiccup out into another building. It was big, and really warm. 

“I should probably open a few windows,” Hiccup said sheepishly. “It’s not usually this warm, but it means Gobber’s probably here.” 

Izuku had met the man a few times, all in different circumstances. He was big, and kinda intimidating. But he was nice! And could translate for Gothi. 

“Hey Gobber!” Hiccup called, waving his arm in the air. 

Gobber’s head poked up near a large area Izuku could see the heat coming from. “Hey Hiccup! Oh, hey Izuku! What brings you here!” 

“I was showing Izuku the forge. We were thinking of letting him help me sometimes. He’s got small fingers, perfect for the small things.” Hiccup ruffled Izuku’s hair, and he leaned into the touch. 

“I’m real good at small stuff!” Izuku added, grinning. 

“Come on Izuku, I’ll show you what’s in here and a couple of my current projects if we have time.” 

Izuku beamed. “Okay!” This would be fun. He’d get to see a bunch of cool stuff!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kinda don’t actually know what’s in Hiccup’s forge, so skipping that… 
> 
> All folks: I have a bunch of slots in my update schedule open! The poll to fill them out can be found at this URL, just copy and paste: https://forms.gle/x67qsbhRtN9z2YdK9
> 
> To those who have no clue what I just said: I update on a three week rotation schedule, if no one’s caught onto that yet. When stories end they leave an open slot. I have no ability to pick stories to fill the gap myself, so here we are. I use a poll for you guys so I don’t have to pick! The poll ends December 20th.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! What’s this? Plot? *gasp* Amazing! This chapter fought me so hard honestly, if feels like these chapters are just trying to kill me at this point. 

“Izuku, are you ready?” Astrid called up the stairs. “It’s almost time to go.” 

“I’m good!” Izuku called back. “Coming down!’ 

Astrid nodded, pleased when he trotted down the stairs. “Good. Hiccup’s already at the main hall, so I’m taking you on Stormfly.” 

Izuku beamed. He liked riding on Stormfly too, she was higher off the ground then Toothless, and had all the spines! She was super cool! 

Astrid picked him up, setting him on the front of Stormfly’s saddle. “Hold on.” She swung up behind him and Izuku grabbed hold of the saddle obligingly as she wrapped her arms around him to make sure he stayed in the saddle. 

Stormfly trotted out of the house, then took off, flying to a part of the village Izuku didn’t know. Admittedly he hadn’t really been around much of the village, so that wasn’t a strange thing. 

Astrid put him down on the ground without getting off herself. “Have a fun day at school dragonlet, get good and tired before you come home for the day.” 

Izuku glanced at her quizzically, but worked up his courage, and went inside. It looked like it was just someone’s house, as opposed to a designated school area. There weren’t any desks, but there were four other kids in the house. 

They were all bigger than he was, although he was pretty sure they weren’t any older. He was pretty bad at estimating age though. 

“Ah, good, you’re here,” a man, big and tall in the way most people were around here, spoke. Immediately all the other kids turned to look at him. “Kids, this is Izuku, he’s staying with the Chief and his wife. He’s joining us for now, since you’re about his age.” 

The kids all stared at Izuku, and Izuku resisted the urge to shrink in on himself like Kacchan was staring him down again. He was here, there weren’t any quirks, he wouldn’t be called useless, wouldn’t be known as Deku, worthless, useless. 

“Introduce yourselves,” the adult insisted. “Then we’ll head out. We’re helping herd the sheep today, isn’t that fun! We’re even going to learn how to check if they’re going to give birth soon.” 

Oh that sounded fun! Izuku decided. Even if he wasn’t liked by the other kids, maybe he’d have some fun! 

“I’m Troutnose,” one of the kids, apparently braver than the others, decided to introduce himself. “You have weird hair.” 

As Izuku hadn’t yet seen someone else with green hair, he would concede that he did have weird hair to them. 

“Stoutlug,” another added. 

“Skarf.” 

“Thornfist.” 

Izuku quickly committed the names to memory. “Nice to meet you all! I hope we have a productive year!” 

“Right,” the adult grunted. “Come on, out we go. We need to get there soon or the herder is going to kill me.” He addressed Izuku. “I’m Ornolf.” 

Izuku dipped into a quick bow like his mother had taught him to do to adults. “Pleasure to meet you!” 

He just grunted and moved Izuku to the side by picking him up and placing him to the side. “Let’s get a move on.” 

Izuku waited until the other kids had run past, then ran after them. He had to do this, had to at least try and make friends. He’d probably have better chance here, he was still quirkless, but that was the norm here! Even if he didn’t have a dragon, but that seemed like an adult thing anyway, and he had plenty of time! 

He was very impressed by the amount of sheep though, were they going to have to check every one? And how were they supposed to herd them? Izuku was pretty sure most of the sheep were bigger than he was.

“Right, you kid’s job is to lead the sheep, we’re going to herd them through this gate, and when we give the signal, you start running to that other pasture over there. There are five flocks of sheep like this we’re going to do, then we’re going to go check every one to make sure they aren’t about to give birth. If they are, we’ll proceed from there.” 

Izuku nodded, and stood where he’d been pointed to. He stared down the sheep nervously. He wasn’t very fast, what if he got trampled! Would Hiccup be mad? 

A whistle sounded and Izuku turned on his heel and took off for the other pen as fast as his little legs could carry him. 

When he finally did reach the pen and stood by the gate, turning back to check, he was surprised to find that he’d reached the gate quite a ways ahead of everyone else, and the sheep were actually meandering along, nothing like the stampede Izuku had imagined. Oh. Well, he knew for next time now. 

“You’re fast kid,” was all he got once the others arrived and the sheep were in the pen. Izuku blushed red. 

“Sorry, I’ll be slower next time.” 

“Keep that speed up with Hiccup,” Ornolf said instead. “But yes, go slower for this. Tell Hiccup I say get you some speed training.” 

Izuku nodded dutifully. “I will!” 

He grunted in response, turning to herd the kids to the next pen. “Show it, don’t just tell me.” 

Izuku glowed in the aftermath of the praise from the adult he barely knew. And a teacher at that! He trotted after the group, completely missing the jealous glares from his classmates. 

In the end, it took him two more tries to get the right speed. The first time he left everyone behind again, although by less of a margin this time, the second he was still a tiny bit too fast, reaching the gate before them all again. 

Luckily, the fourth and fifth herds went perfectly, and Izuku stayed with the pack the entire time. The teacher even gave him an approving nod too! 

Checking all of the sheep was a tiring thing, and he was ready to drop by the end of it, after the five runs, and checking all the sheep, he wanted lunch and a nap. Then maybe dinner and to sleep.

“Alright, Izuku, here’s Astrid to pick you up, the rest of you are dismissed.” 

Izuku once again missed the glares thrown his way as he bounced anxiously waiting for Astrid to land and pick him up. 

“Well squirt?” Astrid asked as soon as she’d gotten him situated in the saddle and they were in the air. “How’d it go?” 

“It went super well!” Izuku decided, wriggling happily. “The teacher was super nice to me! And he says ask Hiccup about speed stuff!”

Astrid chuckled, ruffling his hair. “We’ll do that when he gets back for lunch. In the meantime, you’re helping me prepare it.” 

Earlier exhaustion forgotten, Izuku cheered, throwing his hands up in the air. “Whoo!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, it’s past 2 in the morning and I don’t care anymore. Have the chapter, be happy, and I will suffer over the next one. Have a wonderful Christmas.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright! Onward to the new chapter! 

The teacher person for the school had fallen sick, along with a good half of the village. Gothi was overrun, so Izuku couldn’t go to her, and Hiccup and Astrid were both very busy trying to manage the mess, so he couldn’t be there either, so here he was, facing down the big man he’d been left with. 

“So you’re the brat Hiccup picked up?” The man bent down slightly to look Izuku in the eye. 

Izuku nodded shakily, doing his best not to give into the urge to back up. He was scary. 

“You any good with knives kid?” 

Izuku blinked at him curiously, his inquisitive nature winning out over his fear. “Knives? I haven’t handled them before.” 

“Well you might as well start now.” He turned to walk inside. 

Izuku decided the risk of learning something new was more important than how scary the guy was. So he followed him inside. 

“If you can’t tell the sharp end from the dull end on a knife I am personally dragging you back to Hiccup,” the man threatened, handing him a knife. Izuku, who did indeed know the sharp end from the dull end, grabbed what he was pretty sure was called the handle. 

“You hold it like this,” the man demonstrated, showing his hand with another knife in it to Izuku. Izuku stared at it for a bit, then adjusted his grip. He offered his hand to the man to check. 

“Better, but tuck your thumb in more.” 

Izuku quickly fixed it, and beamed when the man gave a gruff nod. He could totally do this. Even if he still didn’t know the man’s name. It was bound to be said at some point, right? 

So he let the man show him how to hold the knife, then how to throw a different kind of knife, then how to fight much bigger opponents with a knife. 

Izuku was very proud of his new skill. It would come in handy! He could be more useful! 

The man’s name was not said all day, but it was when he was picked up at the end of the day. Eret. Izuku figured it fit the man. 

He went back a few more times over the next two weeks, and Izuku figured Eret was warming up to him! He didn’t mind the man of course, he wasn’t outright mean, so Izuku was fine with it. Plus he was teaching Izuku all about how to handle and care for a knife! 

That was awesome, therefore Eret was placed firmly in the ‘nice’ category in Izuku’s mind. The list was also occupied by Astrid and Hiccup, plus Toothless and Stormfly, then Gothi and her pack of terrible terrors, and the teacher for the class he went to! It was way more than his old world’s list, which was composed entirely of his mom, and Auntie Mitsuki and Uncle Masaru. Kacchan hadn’t been on it in a while. Not since Izuku was diagnosed quirkless. 

But that didn’t matter any more! Everyone here was quirkless, so he fit right in! Besides his small stature and green hair. But there were dragons! Things way more interesting than him. And he knew from Hiccup that Hiccup had been about the same size as a kid. 

No one here treated him like glass, and seemed to genuinely like him, not just pretending because he had been pretty much adopted by Hiccup and Astrid. 

“Hey kid, is that a bruise?” Eret asked suspiciously. 

Izuku tugged down his sleeve to hide the bruise again. “Maybe?” It wasn’t like it was really a big deal or anything, and it wasn’t really a big deal, after all, the bruises were nothing compared to the starburst burns from Kacchan. He only ever got a couple bruises here! 

“What from?” Eret loomed over him somewhat threateningly. Izuku shrunk back timidly. 

“Playing?” 

“That sounded like a question.”

“It wasn’t?”

“That did too. What is it from?” 

Izuku swallowed hard. “Someone threw a rock at me and it hit my arm when I shielded my face.” He paled at the thunderous expression on Eret’s face and started rambling. “It’s really nothing! Especially compared to what I got from Kacchan, and it was probably just an accident anyway, the other kids were kicking rocks around anyway, and kept hitting each other with em too, so I’m sure it wasn’t on purpose, and I don’t know who threw either of them.” 

“So you have another bruise,” Eret said, raising an eyebrow. 

“On my back.” Izuku squeaked. “I think, I can’t really see it.” 

Eret’s solution to all of this? Show Izuku where to cut people where no one else will notice or it won’t kill them. Izuku thought he didn’t mind this variation on taking care of bullies, even if he’d feel bad if he actually used it. So he never did. It wasn’t like it was a common thing anyway. 

Plus, he could be more useful like this! He could cut things free of nets and stuff, and get through the undergrowth. So it was good. He liked the lessons, even if he wasn’t going to hurt people with them. It wouldn’t be very heroic of him. 

“I still think you should stab them.” Eret commented, whistling while Izuku practiced. “But your choice I suppose squirt.” 

“No stabbing,” Izuku told him, frowning disappointedly. 

“It’d be rad though,” Eret pointed out, gesturing with his knife. “And they wouldn’t bother you again.” 

“No stabbing,” Izuku repeated firmly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eret is me, Izuku is the rest of a server I’m on. Unfortunately, no stabbing is allowed really. I say it anyway because my poor friends need a knife to stab people with, but that’s beside the point. Y’know what time it is? Poll time! SEW ended yesterday, and WHS ends tomorrow. Have the poll. https://forms.gle/qMbWvoSCcfJYNDqy5


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Onward we go! 

“Izuku, are you alright?” Izuku blinked up at Astrid, still trying to blink sleep out of his eyes. He was tired, had been up late last night trying to formulate an avoidance plan. His fifteenth so far. Maybe this time it’d work. He doubted it, but oh well. 

“Maybe we should keep him home,” Hiccup sounded equally concerned as his wife, laying his wrist across Izuku’s forehead, probably checking for a fever. 

“I’m alright,” Izuku mumbled, probably not very convincingly. He was fine, just a bit tired. 

“No, you’re staying home,” Astrid decided. “Go back to bed.” 

“Breakfast first,” Hiccup overruled her. “Then bed.” 

“Breakfast first,” Astrid agreed. 

Izuku gave in and sat down to eat breakfast. Maybe it’d be nice to have a break. They weren’t going to budge anyway. 

Upon finishing breakfast, he was shepherded up the stairs and back to his bedroom. He went easily, laying back down in his bed and letting them tuck him back in. 

“Sleep well, we’ll go do something we’ve been meaning to for a while when you wake up if you feel better,” Hiccup told him, patting his leg. 

Izuku yawned, and let the tiredness get the better of him. He was completely out not two seconds later. 

When he did manage to wake up, probably some time in the late afternoon based on the position of the sun, he felt significantly better. Hiccup was working quietly on some paperwork while Astrid leaned over his shoulder, chatting with him, probably about the paperwork. 

He stepped on the slightly squeaky step on purpose, and Astrid looked up. 

“Good afternoon Izuku,” she said, coming over. “You look better, feel better?” 

“A lot, yeah,” Izuku admitted, yawning. 

“That’s wonderful,” Astrid agreed, laying her wrist on his forehead. It was cool, and Izuku leaned into it. “Although your temperature is concerning.” 

Izuku didn’t feel particularly sick at the moment, so he just shrugged. 

“I think he runs hot normally,” Hiccup said, taking his turn at putting his wrist on Izuku’s forehead. “And you run cold anyway. I don’t think he has a fever, or at least not much of one. You feelin alright, buddy?” 

Izuku nodded quietly. “I’m good.” 

He watched them exchange a glance, wondering what it could be about. 

“Alright, Izuku, how would you feel about having a dragon of your own?” Hiccup asked carefully. “We’ve been considering it, and new hatchlings are out now, so even if you don’t make a lifelong bond with one you’ll get to know a couple of them and maybe know what kind of dragon you’d like to have eventually.” 

Izuku lit up. He’d been wondering if he’d be able to tame and train a dragon at some point, really hoping that at some point he’d be able to make a super great friend like how Toothless and Hiccup or Astrid and Stormfly were! 

“Get dressed and get some shoes on, then we’ll go,” Astrid butted in. “I’ll get a lunch together for you to eat on the way.” 

“Thanks!” Izuku chirped, dashing back up the stairs. He dressed quickly, pulling on shoes and socks. He met Astrid and Hiccup in the main room, and Hiccup got on Toothless, and Astrid on Stormfly. Izuku sat on Stormfly with Astrid because she had his lunch and he was hungry after sleeping all day and missing lunch. 

They arrived at a massive island off the coast of actual berk proper. 

“This is where the hatchlings come to grow up a little bit after hatching,” Astrid explained as they approached. Izuku nodded, stuffing the rest of his sandwich in his mouth. It was good, he was glad he’d shown them how to make a sandwich. 

They landed on a big beach, and were almost immediately greeted by dozens of small dragons running up to greet them. A couple bigger dragons that Stormfly and Toothless immediately greeted politely followed behind more sedately. 

Hiccup bowed his head politely, as did Astrid, so Izuku followed their example. 

The two adults regarded the humans for a long moment, then bowed back, and turned and left. The hatchlings remained behind, jumping around their feet excitedly. 

“Alright, we’re now babysitting,” Hiccup said, chuckling as he crouched down to pet a few of the babies. 

Izuku cooed at a small gronckle, trying to imitate the sounds the adult dragons made at hatchlings. 

“If no one here sticks out to you, we have at least five more groups of hatchlings to check out,” Hiccup told Izuku. “And even if no one sticks out properly, you can wait, and there are plenty of unbonded adult dragons out there. We’ll find a dragon eventually.” 

Izuku nodded, catching the gronckle as it launched itself at him. Very cute, but he was pretty sure he wanted something fast, something able to maneuver through the air, not just act as a tank. 

“Probably not a gronckle,” he admitted to them. 

“Understandable,” Astrid agreed. “They’re pretty slow. Even if they’re cute as babies.” 

“And really heavy,” Hiccup grunted, holding one in his hands with two more attached to his back. 

Astrid just laughed and went over to pluck the dragons off. “Of course dear.” 

In the end, Izuku didn’t pick a dragon out. He’d find one at some point, but he hadn’t clicked with anyone on the island. They could always look more later though. Now there was dinner to be made and eaten. 

He’d still have to fret about the bullies tomorrow, but it’d be fine. He had an extra plan, and he could always sneak out to see the hatchlings at some point if it got too bad. They’d been delighted to have him to play with them, and the adult dragons had appreciated the break from babysitting duty. 

He’d definitely made friends with them though! He could manage without human friends, after all, he had in his original world. Besides, who needed human friends when he had two supportive adoptive parents, and a heck ton of dragon hatchlings who wanted to play with him at all times. They were super tiring though.

Izuku, despite having slept most of the day, was almost immediately out once he had dinner and was ready for bed. 

He flopped on his bed, barely felt Hiccup or Astrid tucking him in and kissing his forehead before he was completely out. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So… Anyone feel like guessing what Izuku’s dragon will be? I already have a species (and name lol) picked out! If you guess right, well, internet cookie to you. Have a good night!

**Author's Note:**

> That's a good enough ending point. Please tell me if I need to add any tags, it would help immensely.


End file.
